MSU Debate Team brushes up to face off in nation's capital

Members of the MSU Debate Team will be in Washington, D.C., next week, but its top priority will not be seeing the inauguration.

Political theory and constitutional democracy senior Carly Wunderlich and international relations senior Garrett Abelkop will debate the Obama administration’s priorities on energy and climate change Monday against students from Wake Forest University.

“The whole purpose is to discuss what (President-elect Barack Obama’s) policy should be,” Abelkop said. “We will propose that Obama should enact a specific solution right at the beginning (of his administration) — something that we and the coaches came up with through research.”

The debate will be at 9:00 a.m. at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium.

Wake Forest will defend Obama’s energy plan, MSU Debate Team head coach Will Repko said.

Greta Stahl, director of the debate team, said Wunderlich and Abelkop were chosen to represent the team because they participated in a previous event with the same orchestrators in the district.

“They’re both very bright and good representatives of the academic standards of our university,” she said.

Although the debate is the main reason for the trip, Wunderlich said she is just as excited, if not more, to attend the inauguration on Tuesday.

“We went and watched Obama speak on his energy policy when he was in Lansing, and we definitely followed the election,” she said. “We all voted. It’s going to be great.”

Four other universities will participate in the debates, discussing the Obama administration’s priorities on health care and foreign policy. This is the first time college students have debated in Washington, D.C., before Inauguration Day.

“I just really want to give other people the opportunity to see what debate is about and to bring what we do to other people,” Wunderlich said.